Funny How I Thought
by LightNinja
Summary: It all started when I set out to save a cousin I'd never met...


This work is a piece of pure fiction, based on the Final Fantasy X video game.  
  
There will be spoilers for the entire game.  
  
I will be using Al Bhed in this fic. Translations will be at the bottom of each chapter for whatever Al Bhed is used.  
  
DISLCAIMER: One and only, so get it here. I. Own. Nothing. This includes the Final Fantasy series and sundry. That all belongs to different people, who make a lot more money than I do.   
  


  
  
**Prologue: Reasons To Go**

  
  
I never really was the hero type. All my life I lived with the fact that my father and mother were heroes of our people. My brother... well, he was more cut out for the role of _comic-relief_ than _hero_. And me? I was just the spunky Al Bhed girl, trailing after my father like he was Yevon (not that I actually _believed_ in Yevon).  
  
No, I was never the hero type. But fate, it seemed, had different plans for me. It chipped away at me until, by the time I undertook the task of preventing my cousin from giving her life to defeat Sin, I was all hero shaped and ready to battle.  
  
But it's _before_ that, I suppose, where my story begins.  
  


  
  
I was five when Braska died. I'd only ever saw him, and my cousin, once, but I cried for days afterwards. I didn't know why at the time, though I guess I was subconciously acknowledging the sacrifice he'd made for us, made for Spira. Dad later told me that it was the fate of a High Summoner, to die so that Sin could be defeated and the world could be safe. I never really bought this, and I know now that dad never either. He was just saying it to make his five year old daughter feel better about the world.  
  
Everything was fine, really, up until the point when Gippal, one of Brother's friends, pointed out that there had to be some way to stop Sin without sacrificing all those lives. Not just the High Summoner, but his or her guardians, and other summoners and _their_ guardians, died fighting Sin. It was senseless, pointless, _needless_ bloodshed, being preached as a 'necessary sacrifice' to the masses. I started to hate Yevon then. Before I never believed. I was an Al Bhed, and Al Bhed did not believe in such things. But after that, I could understand the hatred that so many of my people felt for the religion. They knowingly sent these people out to slaughter while lying to everyone about it. I knew, I _knew_, there had to be another way.  
  
But with Sin gone, and years still till it arrived again, there was nothing I could do except wait.  
  
And I did just that. I waited. I wasn't idle, though. I trained myself to fight. I wasn't a powerhouse, but I was quick, light on my feet. And I knew that, with time, I would get better.  
  
My waiting ended when I turned fifteen. For my _tyo uv pendr_ present, dad gave me a weapon, Claw, and orders to prevent my cousin, Yuna, from going on her pilgrimage.  
  
"You're the only one I can trust," he said, and I believed him. I was also scared shitless. Hey, I was _fifteen_. What do you expect?  
  
I knew I could die doing this. Not only could I be killed simply because I'm Al Bhed (and not just _any_ Al Bhed, but the daughter of the leader of the Al Bhed), but there were a lot of people that would kill me because I was trying to stop a summoner from making her pilgrimage. Despite that, I knew I had to do it.  
  
There were many reasons _not_ to go, but the reason _to_ go was bigger than all of them.  
  
The bloodshed had to stop somewhere, and I would make sure it stopped with Yuna.  
  
I packed my bags, said goodbye to Home, and left on one of our salvage ships. Brother came with me, "To keep an eye on my little sister," he claimed, and I knew he was worried about me. Still, he didn't have the skills, or the drive, that I had, and I suppose that's why dad asked me to undergo this task, rather than him.  
  
Skills or no skills, though, I was grateful to have Brother there with me, those two months I was on that ship, if only because he's a better cook than me.  
  
Every day was pretty much routine. We'd get up, have breakfast (courtesy of Brother), then some of us would dive and look for ruins to salvage. I spent most of my time tracking Yuna's progress. It wasn't too hard, surprisingly enough. We had a spy set on Besaid, and with the hand-held communication devices that a kid named Shinra had designed, it was easy to get daily reports.  
  
The routine was broken, though, the day I got the message that she was going in to the temple to get her first Aeon. However, my departure was delayed, and by a most unlikely occurance. I guess fate stepped in on that one as well, because if I hadn't followed the life sign signal to the abandoned Baaji Temple, Tidus probably would have died there.  
  


  
  
_Translations_  
  
tyo uv pendr - day of birth 


End file.
